MATRIX: Free Your Mind.

The Matrix principle is an easy one to understand, and even easier if you've seen the Matrix trilogy. This principle basically points out that some things, a lot of things actually, are all in your head, and that you therefore have a surprising amount of control over them.

Have you ever heard the saying "ignorance is bliss" or "what you don't know can't hurt you"? The Matrix principle asks how on earth can knowing something hurt you anymore than not knowing something? The answer is it can't.

Now you're jumping out of your chair citing all kinds of examples to prove me wrong. You say how finding out a loved died makes you sad and how knowing that you might get fired makes you anxious. No, they don't. YOU make YOURSELF sad and anxious by believing that these things have more control over YOUR emotional state than they actually do.

So how much control over YOUR feelings do external factors really have? None at all. What goes on inside your head goes on inside YOUR head. It is the one place where YOU are in complete control over what happens. YOU determine what YOU think and how YOU feel. Your emotions do not just come falling out of the sky. YOU create them! (psychology 101).

I would like to quote the greatest psychologist of all time, doctor Albert Ellis, with a beautiful sentence from his book, A Guide To Rational Living. This sentence elegantly illustrates the matrix principle: "People and things do not upset us. Rather, we upset ourselves by believing that they can upset us".

Now you're asking yourself: "If I really have complete control over what goes on inside my head, then how come I get anxious and nervous even though I don't want to?"

Because years and years of (unintentional) brainwashing, mental conditioning, and crooked thinking have led you to believe that you can't do things that you actually can. It's like in the movie The Matrix. Neo fails his first jump because he is still convinced that he can't jump from one skyscraper to the other, when in fact he can. In other words, he makes himself fail because he believes in advance that he is going to fail.

In similar fashion, you cause yourself unnecessary stress and anguish because you firmly believe that you have no control over your emotions. Instead of telling yourself shit happens and getting on with your life, you needlessly depress yourself over things which you truly have no control over.

Now you answer "Yes, but quickly getting over traumatic experiences is easier said than done.".

That is absolutely correct. But who said it should be easy? Was it easy for Neo to unlearn everything he had learned in The Matrix and thereby gain complete control over his mind? Of course not.

Buddhists are aware of just how powerful the mind really is and how much influence it has over your everyday life. As a result, they spend countless hours doing something that everybody should do: meditate. Through deep meditation, they shape their mind and thus the way they perceive the world around them.

They strongly believe that if you are not happy on the inside, then you can have all the material things in the world and you will still be miserable. If, however, you carry happiness deep within, then nothing in the world will be able to deprive you of said happiness. You will be able to find joy with just the simple bare necessities of life.

While inner peace is likely not the be all, end all of your search for happiness and well-being, it is definitely a huge step in the right direction.

However, joy, happiness, and whether or not meditating is worth the time and effort are all a matter of opinion and have therefore nothing to do with logic. Consequently, The Matrix principle doesn't say how to shape your mind or even that you should shape it. It merely says that you can. The things in your head are just that, in YOUR head. It logically follows that YOU have complete control over them. If YOU don't, then WHO does?